New Energy Adds Seasoned Glass Executive to Board of Advisors

New Energy Technologies, Inc., a developer of SolarWindow, capable of generating electricity on see-through glass and flexible plastic, announces the appointment of accomplished glass industry executive J. Patrick Thompson to the company’s Board of Advisors. The appointment underscores New Energy’s commitment to commercialize its novel SolarWindow technology for introduction to industry, including the solar, plastics and film, glass, and solar-glass segments – areas of Thompson’s specific expertise.

In the solar-glass industry, Thompson developed Asahi Glass Company’s solar glass division, achieving more than $200 million in revenues and growing sales from zero at inception to commanding 70% market share in North America. As vice president of Asahi’s Solar Business Unit, he’s credited with the development and commercial introduction of 11 new products in 2010 alone. Asahi Glass Company is a global glass leader, reporting nearly $16 billion in 2010 sales.

“I’m pleased to welcome Patrick to the team as part of our proactive effort to introduce New Energy’s SolarWindow technology to industry,” stated John A. Conklin, president and CEO of New Energy Technologies, Inc. “Patrick brings us valuable technical know-how in glass manufacturing processes and encapsulation technologies for increasing the lifetime of coatings. This kind of industrial experience is essential to applying our SolarWindow electricity-generating coatings to see-through commercial glass products and ensuring a commercially viable product lifecycle.

“Importantly, Patrick’s demonstrated record of business success at Fortune 100 companies is directly aligned with the industries we’re targeting for introduction of our SolarWindow – namely, solar, glass, plastics, and specialty chemicals,” Conklin added,

In the plastics industry, Thompson worked to examine and improve product sales and marketing efforts at GE Plastics. He identified the single largest sales opportunity in the company’s history, earning him the organization’s MVP award for sales and marketing. Of note, New Energy’s SolarWindow has been demonstrated to generate electricity on flexible plastics. Scientists anticipate that commercially developed electricity-generating flexible plastic could be deployed as tinted window film, which remains see-through while generating electrical power.

At Ciba Specialty Chemicals (now BASF),Thompson worked with multinational companies, including Texas Instruments, Mitsubishi Semiconductor, Lockheed Martin and Harris Semiconductor on global applications, achieving an increase in total divisional sales by 39%, the highest of any division. Importantly, researchers developing New Energy’s SolarWindow technology anticipate the use of encapsulants to help maximize product life-cycle, an area of expertise particular to Thompson’s efforts at Ciba/BASF.

A licensed professional engineer, Thompson earned his mechanical undergraduate degree from Clemson University and completed the Dynamic Leadership program at International Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.